Bibabutzemann

Whale and Hockey Stick Galaxy

~7 hours

2 hours ago, Rob F said:

 

only issue would be the camera rotation 

Awesome moon image btw. It’s been a while since I last imaged the moon.

Thanks! I dont do it too often too. I think its a way more interesting target for longer focal length.

Image rotation would work, because there is a lock ring. But you have to refocus for every rotation and when you want to change the filter on top of the CC, you need to unscrew to whole thing...Doesnt sound very  comfortable to use, but might be worth it.

23 hours ago, Rob F said:

What would cause the stars in only one corner to be elongated? I know if it’s only one side, top and bottom, then it’s an off center issue. I already installed the TS Optics compression ring which took care of that problem, but I still get some bad stars only in one corner. One time it’s in the lower left, then it’s to the lower right side. The stars in the rest of the corners are round. 
The imaging train has not been touched, canon t3 with MPCC.

Could be collimation or tilting issue. This is how i approach that issue.

Anyone tried one of these? https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p5417_Lacerta-Schraubadapter-fuer-Baader-Komakorrektor-an-Skywatcher-Newtons.html

Moon, lucky imaging, Canon 1200D

It was windy, but the seeing was good. (16:9 crop cause i love Moon Shots as Wallpapers) 

On 23/02/2022 at 10:24, alacant said:

Fit the filter on the camera side. 

Is there a known solution for 48mm Filters like the L extreme? Whith Clip Filters this would be no problem.

On 21/02/2022 at 11:14, alacant said:

There are many methods for polar alignment you can use. As you'll already be using it, rather than add yet another app, we'd recommend using PHD2

We have always found multiple stars. The worst case we ever witnessed was at 1200mm whilst imaging m106 with a 6" f8. Then there were only two stars available for guiding. Drop that to 650mm with a proper cc and you'll have plenty of stars. The minimum requirement for guiding is one. Bear in mind also that we use indi to control our hardware which includes an eq6 mount.

 

 

Ok well i dont really like using PHD for polar allign, because its way slower.  But NINAs polar allignment feature should do the trick.

One thing im still scepitcal about is using the oag while having the L extreme filter on the front of my CC.

On 19/02/2022 at 11:31, alacant said:

Hi

Yes, any 120mm will work with the ts9.

Hands on experience tells us it's a good solution for what you aiming for.

Cheers.

now you also got me interested in OAG.

I just wonder is polar allignment through sharpcap still possible? The fow seems to small with OAG.

Also i wonder if you always find multiple stars with the OAG.

Because multi star guiding improves the EQ3 guiding significantly.

25 minutes ago, Stefan73 said:

 

What do you use as a guide scope and camera?  The obvious choice I guess is something like https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-scopes/zwo-mini-finder-guider-asi120mm-bundle.html as a combination but I've read to go for something more sturdy to attach to the OTA than the finder-shoe base.

 

the ZWO 120mm mini is the one i would choose. Its future proof because its so popular, which means software issues will be sorted out faster.

I use the 60mm Artesky Ultraguide scope, but i think 50mm is really more than enough. 

I attached the guidescope like this

So i basically just screwed the dovetail of the bracket onto the top.

7 hours ago, edarter said:

Thank you, yes I did, always seem to need an LP filter despite my location 'only' being Bottle 5. I get some horrid gradients and colour cast otherwise. I use the Astronomic CLS clip in for my EOS600D.

I think even in Bortle 5 it still makes sense to use a LP filter because its a lot easier to deal with Gradients. This is especially the case  for nebula which cover the whole framing and proper background extraction is really hard to do.

I asked because i also used the CLS filter and recognized the warm tone of your picture.

Its purely preference, but i always  lowered the temperature a good amount to get closer to RGB colors.

I also have the EQ3 Pro and 130 PDS. If the conditions are not windy, guiding works quite good. Few days a ago i did 10x10min exposure and didnt have to throw away any data.

I agree with vlaiv. For this setup a guide scope is the better choice. With the guide scope you can also do pretty accurate polar alignment with Sharpcap.

You will reach the limit of the EQ3 with the 130 PDS though. For better balancing i would attach the Guide scope on the back of the Newton and in opposite direction in respect to  focuser+camera.

I have a 60mm guide scope, but 50mm is enough.

As a cam i would buy a used Canon DSLR, like the EOS 1200D or 1100D.

Similiar price range, but more flexibility and MUCH better perfomance for Deep Sky imaging.

6 hours ago, edarter said:

Another M42, I'm quite happy with this one! 3hrs of data over 2 nights at the start of Feb when the moon was not about.

 

Beautiful! really nice framing. Did you use a LP filter?  

I had my first try with the L extreme Filter (got it used for 215€, condition like new 😇 )

This is only 1h40min, because of my limited view in south direction. So its quite noisy. I hope to add another 2-3 hours this season.

130PDS,1200Da, EQ3 Pro, 10x10min@ISO1600

The moon was not too far from this object and my south sky is pretty light polluted, so im impressed. No DBE was needed.

Rosette Nebula in HOO:

Same night i did 2 hours on Leo Triplet, getting ready for galaxy season. (Hopefully with better weather)

On 10/02/2022 at 07:49, wimvb said:

In most cases, guiding failure after dithering or after a meridian flip is caused by improper balancing and backlash. Use the guide assistant on both sides of the meridian. If the results, especially backlash, are significantly different you need to improve both balance and backlash. Try to get backlash below 1000 ms. PHD can handle what’s left. Slight imbalance and a small polar alignment error can help getting more consistent guiding, but the keywords here are slight and small.

I tried slight imbalance and it didnt improve the settle time. Maybe its backlash.

When i do manual dithering i always make the last small nudges in north and west direction. After that i start guiding and it only needs a few seconds to settle. I dont understand why the automatic dithering cant do it in the same way.

On 09/02/2022 at 18:39, Astro_by_sona said:

Thanks ! I did use 20 flat frames and 25 dark frames, I wonder about the noise myself, pls advise.

Did you use background extraction and then autostretch in Siril? Because in my experience Siril stretches it a bit too far and thus also stretching the noisy part too much. Maybe do the final stretch in PS with a mask (Select-Colour range - Highlights)

On 01/02/2022 at 20:57, ollypenrice said:

 

Anyway, when are we going to hear chapter and verse on the guiding RMS of the EQ3 Pro? It's time for an infusion of facts into this conversation!! 😁 I've no idea what this mount can deliver since I don't even recall seeing one in the flesh, but if it's good enough to run at half the pixel scale of its imaging rig (or thereabouts) I'll gladly doff my hat to it.

Olly

I bought a used EQ3 1.5 years ago as my first AP mount. I pair it with the 130PDS, a 60mm Guidescope and a EOS 1200D, so i push it to its limits 😁

With proper alligment (Thanks to sharpcap)  i get a RMS between 0.95"-1.2" most of the times. This is also thanks to Multi star guiding. Without it, i got a RMS between 1.15" and 1.4".

Everything is controlled through EQmod, so no Synscan.

So i would say modern software plays a big role in enhancing cheap mounts.

The rig is pretty sensitive to windy conditions though. I can somewhat compensate by putting some additional weight on the tripod.

Maybe im just very lucky with my unit, since i never did any modification or maintenance like putting new grease on the gears. How often should that be done anyway?

i also have problems with dithering. I just dont understand why it messes up my guiding so bad.  It takes several minutes to get back to normal guiding. 

Since dithering is still important to me, i just manually dither: I use the coarse grid in PHD2 and choose one star and just move it randomly in one box of the grid every 10 minutes. This manual dithering costs me 30-45 sec max including settle time.

So why is the automatic dithering so bad. I use ATP to give the dither command and tried different dither step. Nothing helped.

On 31/01/2022 at 12:01, Astro_by_sona said:

Hi Folks,

 

I'm very new to DSO imaging, and here's one of my very first attempt at M45 using my Skywatcher 130PDS, Nikon D5600(unmodded) iOptron CEM40(G) mount, GSO 2" CC, L-Pro filter.

Unguided, 30" exposure with total integration of 1hour 11 minutes only.

Processed in DSS, SIRIL & PS 2022. Please help me improve my imaging and any modifications required for the 130PDS. 

Thanks!

Clear Skies!

 

Hi, really nice first try. I wonder why parts of the image look quite noisy while the lower part doesnt. Did you use flat frames?

Thats one crispy sharp heart right there. Awesome details.

I had the same blue greenish background when i processed my NBZ data. I would average the background and subtract it in PS or just use Siril (free) and do a background neutralization.

I would love to see this picture with some RGB stars.

On 06/12/2021 at 13:17, Jim Smith said:

Too late...the deed is done! Now awaiting a clear night to see if my star shapes will improve.

Just a thought...won't you need a larger secondary if the distance between primary and secondary is shortened?

i thinks so too, yes, but i dont think the difference in vignetting would be visible.

I never shortened my tube and i dont have those star shapes. (also with the MPCC3)

12 hours ago, Tan Zhi Qi said:

Beautiful. I really love the colours! Hope to get pictures like yours soon

Thank you, thats too kind 🙂

I think it helped a lot, that it was really cold outside (around 3°C)

During the summer my EOS 1200D becomes a noisy mess. 

I wonder if anyone of you added a scale on the focuser for exact rotations. Or any other solution that makes it easier to handle multi session imaging.

I sometimes struggle to replicate the exact same camera orientation.

M82, M81 & NGC3077

Equipment: 130PDS, EQ3 Pro, EOS 1200Da @ISO1600 

4h with the L2-Filter, 4h with the NBZ Filter for HA Data

7 hours ago, Pitch Black Skies said:

In the corners it looks like a bit of radial distortion in the stars, more noticeably in the top left. After reading an article I think it might be because my coma corrector is positioned too far from the camera sensor or maybe the focuser thumbscrew is tilting the focuser tube?

If you made sure that the focusing is perfect, i would definitely recheck collimation. I dont know if its due to overexposure, but it doesnt look sharp.

Spacing could also be an issue ofc. What CC and spacing did you use here?

Do you have short exposures for comparison?

2 hours ago, f300v10 said:

I recently obtained a 130P-DS from FLO as SW doesn't sell these state side.  I paired it with the new Starizona Nexus 0.75 reducing coma corrector and shot this first light last night.  Camera was a ASI2600MM with 2" filters.  Two hours total LRGB:

 

 

 

Awesome, that reducer sounds like a good investment. How strong is the vignetting? 

On 26/10/2021 at 17:26, alacant said:

Hi everyone

Here is a HOO of ngc1499 from a UHC filter with the moon very close by. The filter does a great job on excluding the glare.

Thanks for looking and do post if you've had a go. We'd be particularly interested in dslr + UHC/L-eNhance/L-exTreme combinations.

eos700d on 130pds + GPUcc ~10h 30  @ ISO800

 

***EDIT. An in-your-face version. Not sure...

Nice shot!

I only have a HaRGB version (3+1 hours, so i'd rather call it Ha Version with RGB stars, since no nebulosity was added with the short rgb integration)

Achieved with Eos 1200D and Astronomik Ha 12nm and L2 Clip Filter.

I should devinitely invest in a duo band filter, to add more colors. 

On 23/10/2021 at 14:38, BrendanC said:

Hi all,

Thought I'd add this - an unusual target - 30 Cyg and 31 Cyg A & B.

30 Cyg, to the right of the image, is a white giant star with a blue tint.

31 Cyg A is a bright orange giant, with a smaller blue companion called 31 Cyg B (alternatively HD 192579). They are a binary system which orbits at a distance of a mere 11 astronomical units. As they are viewed side-on, every 10.32 years they are are in eclipse for 63 days.

Image details:
* 1:10 hours of integration at ISO800 from 70x60s subs
* Bortle 4, Moon 100% phase, 47° height
* 25 flats, 25 dark flats, 50 darks
* Sky-Watcher 130PDS with primary baffle, NEQ6 with Rowan belt, EOS1000D minus IR filter, 0.9x coma corrector, APT, PHD2, DSS, StarTools, Topaz DeNoise AI

 

Cheers, Brendan

 

 

I think you mixed something up here. 

The small blue star that is actually visible on this picture is the star HD 192579.

The measurable orbital companion of cygni 31 got no seperate name as far as i looked up. 

First attempts on the Moon with my EOS 1200D

First tried to capture with the video mode, but the result was a lot worse (Only Full HD)

Then i tried making 100 pics and stacked the best 25 with Autostakkert. Happy with the result.  If i find out how to lock the mirror on my cam, i would try 1000 frames